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Top Things People Ask/say To You When They See Your Car.


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#31 M J W J

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Posted 05 February 2018 - 11:29 PM

got a new one - a chap canvassing for the local conservative party came round and this guy was well over 60 so should know about minis - he went for the getting to know you angle and said.
"Oh these new minis are fab, my daughter has one and ive been after getting one" 
I replied "wheres it parked?" assuming he had a small BMW to show me.
"This one here!" pointing at my car
"Well its not new chum, its a 1991, by no means "old old" either but its not new"
"Oh right, it looks like a new one"
"Err...no, no it doesnt"
 
He stuttered for a minute and went in for the "relating to you, the voter" chit chat again
"Didnt BMW buy these metros?"
"Sorry mate youve lost me completely, are we still talking about my Rover Mini? what Metros?"
"I thought BMW bought out Austin and built these cars"
 
Im smiling now, because im wondering where this man has been for the last 20 years
 
"Not really how it went down but youre in the ball park - BMW built the new mini"
"Like this one?"
"No, like that one (pointing to my next door but ones little BMW....had to walk down the drive in my dressing gown to show him)
 
"Theyre the same one arent they?" he said. 
"Do they look the same to you?" I replied in slight disbelief
"Oh i dont know, these modern cars confuse me these days...."
"No ****......"
 
Nice man, but bloody hell pal, if youre supposed to be representing us in Europe, the least you can do is know the difference between a British car, so iconically British its almost more British than Big Ben, fish and chips and cups of tea and a German piece of ****  (all be it quite a well engineered piece of ****)


To be pedantic BMW owned Rover since 1994 and under the rover mark classic minis were built up until 2000 so BMW have technically built the classic mini.

#32 mini-mad-mark

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Posted 21 February 2018 - 12:02 AM

Someone said to me "I've just got a mini"

 

Of course what they actually meant was they had just got a MINI/Bini/Mini2/BMW half series (entry model to BMW ownership so must be lower than a 1 series?) 

 

 

On that subject, without wishing to hi-jack, what is people's preferred name for the "other" version? (Keeping it clean and respecting people's choice to have one if they like :-))

Most people who know me know i have classic minis so they know there is a difference but don't comprehend the names I use to describe the later version and give me a blank stare when I say "Bini" 



#33 Magneto

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Posted 22 February 2018 - 02:56 AM

We use Mini for the classics and MINI for the later cars. If someone doesn't understand the difference we call the later ones "New MINI"

 

I know there's a lot of hatred for the BMW versions, but over here they've been a huge success and have kept the company (MINI, not BMW) alive, and I'm for that. I had a 2003 JCW and now have a 2009 Clubman and it's been a terrific car....I'm quite happy with it, and it goes nicely with my classic and my old Jag.

 

That said I think MINI missed a real opportunity with these later larger cars by not starting a sub-brand called "MAXI", that way they could have kept the tidier sized versions alongside the big ones.

 

Here in the states with our vast distances between cities, the Mini is pretty useless as a car except in town.


Edited by Magneto, 22 February 2018 - 02:59 AM.


#34 mister bridger

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Posted 23 February 2018 - 09:08 AM

We use Mini for the classics and MINI for the later cars. If someone doesn't understand the difference we call the later ones "New MINI"

 

I know there's a lot of hatred for the BMW versions, but over here they've been a huge success and have kept the company (MINI, not BMW) alive, and I'm for that. I had a 2003 JCW and now have a 2009 Clubman and it's been a terrific car....I'm quite happy with it, and it goes nicely with my classic and my old Jag.

 

That said I think MINI missed a real opportunity with these later larger cars by not starting a sub-brand called "MAXI", that way they could have kept the tidier sized versions alongside the big ones.

 

Here in the states with our vast distances between cities, the Mini is pretty useless as a car except in town.

I'm guessing you never had the Austin Maxi over there then? NOT a badge likely to be revived, pretty crap car. But then they've revived the Vauxhall Viva badge, so who knows?!



#35 Cooperman

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Posted 24 February 2018 - 02:40 PM

But the Vauxhall Viva was a fine small car from the Mk.2 onwards. If you ever drove the version called the Magnum 2300 you would have been very pleased. We did a direct comparison with a Datsun 240Z and the performance of the Viva Magnum 2300 was virtually identical.

You are right about the Maxi. It got a very bad name due to the cable-operated gear linkage in the early version. Eventually it became a good car, but its reputation never recovered.

I think the BINI-MINI is a super modern car, but it's not what we know as a Mini. The styling was done in the USA by a studio in Newbury Park, CA, and my good friend was asked to take his 1964 Cooper 'S' 1071 down there for them to look closely at, so the original Mini styling is 'in the genes' maybe.

I always have a smile when I go into a petrol station and people come and look at my 1964 Cooper 'S' rally car. Then they see a 77-year-old come, out of the kiosk, get in, do up the 4-point full harness and roar off! I guess they say 'f-ing old-boy racer'  ;D .

Now, what shall I do when I grow up?



#36 Ethel

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Posted 24 February 2018 - 04:14 PM

Maxi, as a brand, will have been sold to the Chinese with the rest of Rover. Looks like it's all history now, save for an occasional MG badge.



#37 Shep76S

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Posted 24 February 2018 - 05:00 PM

Except I have read that BMW kept some of the heritage brands such as Triumph and Wolsley

#38 mab01uk

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Posted 24 February 2018 - 08:39 PM

It is on record that when BMW were presented with the two Rover Spritual Concepts as possible Mini replacements, they asked why the larger Spritual Mini was called 'Midi' and not called a Maxi...........Rover management laughed and explained that the 'Maxi' name and image despite the Issigonis connection was not very well regarded by the motoring public, due to the poor reliability history of the original car at launch during the 1970's..........
http://www.aronline....opment-history/

Spritual Mini
Spritual_01.jpg

Spritual Midi (or Maxi?)
Spiritual-02.jpg



#39 Magneto

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Posted 24 February 2018 - 08:39 PM

 

We use Mini for the classics and MINI for the later cars. If someone doesn't understand the difference we call the later ones "New MINI"

 

I know there's a lot of hatred for the BMW versions, but over here they've been a huge success and have kept the company (MINI, not BMW) alive, and I'm for that. I had a 2003 JCW and now have a 2009 Clubman and it's been a terrific car....I'm quite happy with it, and it goes nicely with my classic and my old Jag.

 

That said I think MINI missed a real opportunity with these later larger cars by not starting a sub-brand called "MAXI", that way they could have kept the tidier sized versions alongside the big ones.

 

Here in the states with our vast distances between cities, the Mini is pretty useless as a car except in town.

I'm guessing you never had the Austin Maxi over there then? NOT a badge likely to be revived, pretty crap car. But then they've revived the Vauxhall Viva badge, so who knows?!

 

You're right, we never had the Maxi here, but I do remember the name, and it seems most appropriate for the large Countryman, Clubman and Paceman models now being sold now as MINIs. The good news is we have no memories of a dismal earlier car by the same name!  



#40 Homersimpson

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Posted 25 February 2018 - 07:17 PM

"Top Things People Ask/say To You When They See Your Car"

 

What's that at the back of the garage under that pile of junk?

 

Really need to dig it out this year!



#41 happydude2012

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Posted 01 March 2018 - 05:49 PM

my mates mom bought a Maxi back in the day, brand new, the whole street came out to watch the Dad putting new hubcaps on it which were "not standard" , i remember this shiney brown monster gleaming in the sun and this poisonous old lady Mrs Wood gossiping loudly  saying "Hark at her....Flash cow! with all that money, he only works for British Steel!

I remember her partner in crime, Mrs Lacey replying  "Probably earned it round the back of Rackams...."  it took me 20 years to hear that phrase again, i dont know if thats just a Black Country saying? but apparently its infers shes a prostitute of some kind.

High five Mrs Lacey! 



#42 johnR

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Posted 08 March 2018 - 10:20 PM

At the end of the day the commenters noticed your cars and cared enough to say something about them, however inaccurate (except the one case mentioned??) It's good to talk!

#43 happydude2012

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Posted 09 March 2018 - 06:24 AM

that sir,  is a very good point. I always see children point ask their parents "whats that car?" and the parents smiling. Its quite cool driving a British icon i think - reminds people this country did some ace things before the wheels fell off (the country....not the car.....well, actually......)



#44 megamini_jb

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Posted 09 March 2018 - 08:11 AM

I've had the Mr Bean remarks a few times.

I always see a mum and her little boy walking up town and as I'm driving towards them she taps him to look and he gets so excited! I beep at him and put my thumb up and he goes bloody mental! Haha! Never seen someone so excited, well apart from the first day I ever drove one lol!

Also I've had "it's nice to see a youngster keeping them on the road" a few times or along them lines.

Just a few weeks ago I go to a shop in a different town and one of the ladies working there must have seen me pull up because I go in and she says "aww little mini", so we get talking about it as you do, then she says her son and his mate have one! I'm like sweet! 10 mins later she goes to the back to get her phone to show me.... she's going through her Facebook to find these pics... by this point my dying to eat my chicken wrap I went in for :P "here we are" she says...... it's a boggo 58 plate Cooper. She's flicking through the pics and I was just thinking to myself, I've just passed 9 of them driving to this damn shop :(

Edited by megamini_jb, 09 March 2018 - 08:16 AM.


#45 happydude2012

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Posted 09 March 2018 - 03:29 PM

theres a young lassie near us whos spoiled rotten, proper little TOWIE girl, her Daddy bought her a brand new cooper, fully loaded with some kind of vomit coloured orange paintjob and the standard new driver row of "cute" teddies obscuring the view in the rear window.

Had her driving up my arse a few times through town, flashing her lights and doing the "her look at my mini" routine and if I see her about she shouts  "hey its mini boy"- shes a bit of a chav.

Im Sad to say she smashed it up on the bypass last Friday, proper went into the side of an old fella in his KIA something or other when she failed to stop at the island.

3 girls and a lad in hospital, auld fella walked away.

I felt bad until I found out she was pi**ed up after a night drinking at her mates house, 4 times the limit apparently.






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